[photo by Owen Tudor]
The past decade has seen a decline in trade union rights in the Commonwealth – contrary to the commitment in the Commonwealth Charter to freedom of association (Article 16). Against a global picture of decline, union rights in the Commonwealth have also weakened, despite starting from a worse position than the global average.
These are the conclusions of a report launched at the Commonwealth People’s Forum in Samoa by the Commonwealth Trade Union Group, an accredited organisation of the Commonwealth with 70 million members in 46 Commonwealth countries.
At the launch, union leaders from the Pacific – Mele Amanaki from Tonga and Dan Urai from Fiji, secretary and president respectively of the Pacific Islands Council of Trade Unions – were joined by Matt Journeaux from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Tanya Toailoa from the Samoan Workers Congress and Professor Alison Duxbury from Melbourne University, former global chair of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.
Despite the bad news in the report, the union leaders had positive developments to report – advances in workers’ rights that they had secured through organisation, bargaining with employers (often through tripartite institutions) and political changes that often required a change of government such as the reforms announced by the new UK Labour government.
But the situation in other countries is not so good, and overall, things are getting worse.
*The best and the worst*
Every year for the past decade, the global trade union movement – the International Trade Union Confederation, or ITUC – has mapped the situation across the world based on the right to freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike.
Two Commonwealth countries, Bangladesh and eSwatini, were identified in this year’s survey as among the ten worst performing countries in the world. And six Commonwealth countries were ranked in the lowest category of countries that haven’t seen the rule of law completely break down.
The impact of worsening trade union rights on the position of working people, their families and communities is seen in growing inequality, declining living standards and disillusion with democracy and democratic institutions.
The six worst performing countries in the Commonwealth in the 2024 index are:
- Bangladesh
- eSwatini
- India
- Malaysia
- Nigeria and
- Pakistan
But there is worse news amongst the better performing countries. In 2014, Barbados, South Africa and Togo (the latter not then a Commonwealth country, only joining in 2022) were ranked among the best 15 performing countries in the world. This year, there were only eight such countries, and *none* of them were in the Commonwealth.
Changing performance in the past decade
The total number of Commonwealth countries in the top two performance categories halved from 10 to 5 between 2014 and 2024.
Countries whose score declined included Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Lesotho, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and the United Kingdom.
Compared with other countries around the world, Commonwealth countries in 2014 scored 3.17 out of 5 compared with the global average of 2.99 meaning that Commonwealth countries started the decade with a worse performance than the world as a whole. But by 2024, the global average had increased to 3.28 compared with a Commonwealth average of 3.56. That means that Commonwealth countries’ performance is getting worse faster than the global average.
To address the challenges posed by declining worker and trade union rights, the Commonwealth Trade Union Group report calls on Commonwealth governments and the Commonwealth Secretariat to:
- Re-establish regular Labour and Employment Ministers Meetings (LEMMs) along the lines of those in the G20, BRICS, G7 and ASEAN (and, from next year, the 18-country Pacific Islands Forum);
- Commit to abide by and implement the fundamental principles and rights at work established by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), as part of a resilient social dialogue; and
- Protect and promote the role of civil society, including independent trade unions and employers’ organisations, to deliver resilient economies, resilient societies, resilient democracies and a resilient environment.
Owen Tudor is the Secretary of the Commonwealth Trade Union Group and a member of the Round Table editorial board. He attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa.
